Mothers’ hopes fade
Poll shows mothers feel quality of children has plunged as offspring age. Hopes for their child’s future are lowered as children approach adulthood.
More than six in ten mothers now say that their children are growing badly—double the percentage who said so in late 2002, and about half say that increasing age will make the rebellion situation worse.
“We thought it was bad when he turned two,” said one mother. “Now he’s thirteen and he never listens to us.”
The survey, released Monday, shows that mothers’ assessments of the quality of their children and the future of their children have plunged in comparison with similar polling done in November 2002, February 1998, and in 1994.
Interestingly, for all the negative changes in attitudes and experience, one result has remained essentially stable: mothers still divide, now by 48-52 percent, over whether it was right or wrong to give birth in 1994.
In 1994, mothers hopes were for “a great college” and “high-paying jobs”. By 1999, hopes had dropped to “tie his own shoes” and “successfully use the restroom”.
As the children age, college expenses loom more and more heavily on mothers’ minds. Today financial worries are a serious concern for once-hopeful mothers.
“My biggest hope now is only one thing: I wish I had more money so I could offer to send them to college, so they can have a better life and a better education—just like every kid ought to have.”
“And get the hell out of my house,” added another mother.
- Voices From Iraq 2007: Ebbing Hope in a Landscape of Loss
- “While it doesn't mitigate Iraq's troubles, there has been some progress. Median household incomes have advanced from $150 per month in 2004 to $204 in 2005 and $286 now. Employment is up sharply. So is possession of consumer goods: Nearly every household in Iraq now has a satellite dish and a radio; nine in 10 have a cell phone, up from a mere 6 percent in 2004.”
- Iraqis see hope drain away
- “Whenever I watch my kids laughing or playing, I can’t be so happy from inside my heart because I don’t know what the next day will bring,” she said. “I really regret the birth of my kids here. I wish I could put them back inside me so I would know all the time where they are and how they are doing.”
- Poll: Iraqis prefer life under Maliki to life under Saddam, 49%-26%
- “Another 16% said they both reek. Righties will find cause for hope in those numbers, lefties will wonder why after four years we can’t get a clear majority to prefer life under American occupation to life under the Arab Stalin. Glass half-full, glass half-empty.”
- Poll: Shiites, Kurds glad U.S. invaded, Sunnis not so much
- “It oversamples Sunni Arabs. Wildly. The weekend poll oversampled them too, but only a bit. This one more than doubles their actual strength in the country, which is only 10 to 15% according to best estimates. The numbers for the Kurds are about right, so this is all coming at the expense of Shiites. Bear that in mind as we go forward, because as you’ll see, the difference between Sunni and Shiite opinion on some key questions can reach 90%.”
Omar decries “White Hate”: In the wake of anti-white violence by a Muslim shooter in Denver, Representative Ilhan Omar begins campaign to “stand together to stop white hate.” (read more…)